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Can an outdoor armoured 4 core electrical cable be wired to a garden light

  • 08-06-2008 05:19PM
    #1
    Doctor_L
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 94 ✭✭


    I want to wire an outdoor garden light (220volts)

    There is an outdor armoured cable which contains red, blue, yellow and brown cables.

    Is the red 10 amps and the brown 16?. There is a light switch inside for this cable.

    Do all lights come fused at 5 amps as standard?

    Thanks

    Liam


Comments

  • #2
    Andrea B.
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,018 ✭✭✭Andrea B.


    You're doing alot of "thinking out loud", which would confuse the best of us.

    I reckon you have more chance of an answer if you state exactly what wiring you have in place. Is it at a switch which already has a live feed and neutral? How long is the cable run? What cross section area is the cable?


  • #3
    mattym
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 228 ✭✭mattym


    all the 4 cores will be rated for the same amount of amps. Its probably a 1.5 or a 2.5 sq cable, you could read that information off the cable outside. It should read "4 x 1.5" or "4 x 2.5". What you want to check is what size mcb or fuse is covering the feed going to the switch, chances are its a 6 or a 10 amp. Once the protection is 10 amps or less the cable going outside is fine even if its a 1.5sq.


  • #4
    Doctor_L
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 94 ✭✭Doctor_L


    Hi,

    cable is 4x1.5.

    What has me confused is the fact that there are 4 of them and not 3. Does that mean that the brown is ignored as its 16 amps.

    The house is 6 yrs old, the light switches have the words B 10 so I think that means 10 amps.

    The manual that came with the outdoor 3 headed garden light states that the light fitting should be on a 5 amp circuit and the outside light fitting must be fused with a 3 amp fuse.

    Thanks

    Liam


  • #5
    DublinDilbert
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,423 ✭✭✭DublinDilbert


    Doctor_L wrote: »
    What has me confused is the fact that there are 4 of them and not 3. Does that mean that the brown is ignored as its 16 amps.

    That means that you have a length of 3 phase cable :D

    Does it have a separate uninsulated earth conductor in it? I presume you need an earth for the light fitting?

    Brown = Live
    Blue = Neutral

    If there's no separate earth in the cable, use one of the remaining cores for this, with some green / yellow sleeving over it at either end, so everyone knows its the earth.

    As the cable is 1.5mm it sounds fine for running off a standard lighting circuit,which would be protected by a 10A MCB.


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